God is really only another artist, he made the elephant, giraffe and cat. He has no real style but keeps trying new ideas.
Pablo Picasso
***************
While living in New York City I belonged to a small group called The Birthday Club. We celebrated each other's birthdays in an unusual way. Whoever had a birthday would throw a party for the other members. It usually involved an event, an excursion boat trip. a drive out into the country, a day at the beach and so forth. Since it was a small group it didn't cost the birthday celebrant much. One day the fellow having the birthday packed a picnic lunch and took us all to the Bronx Zoo.
The Bronx Zoo, officially known as the New York Zoological Garden, was one of the vanguard zoos to create natural environments for the animals. The creatures there live in their natural element as much as possible and are well cared for.
I'm still not sure I know what the fascination is for looking at animals, but since millions of people do it all over the world there is obviously some attraction beyond simple curiosity.
We saw the elephants and the giraffes. We saw the bats and the moles, so dark in their subterranean burrows you could hardly see them. We went through the primate area where I had a conversation with a young gorilla which I've written about somewhere. We saw the big birds who sit up on their perches and occasionally spread their wings, a magnificent sight resembling a small living aircraft. The small birds are not confined to their areas but can fly out and up and down the hall over people's heads if they want to, and visit each other. We saw the butterflies and the reptiles, the wolves and walking birds. One of the emus came right up to his fence and stared me right in the eye. I don't know what he wanted but maybe his was just curious. Humans, after all, are the oddest creatures in the world.
Finally we settled down to have our picnic lunch next to a field where young baboons were chasing each other around.
At one point in our visit we came upon a field of tigers. One of them was on a rock ledge pacing back and forth, back and forth. He never left the ledge. I asked one of the keepers about him and was told that the tiger and been a performing animal, a circus cat, and he had spent most of his life in a cage where it was his habit to pace back and forth. He hadn't yet learned that he could jump off the ledge and roam in the field. To me that was the most interesting thing I saw that day.
Am I just pacing back and forth in my habitual, orthodox mental cage unwilling to roam the field and discover new ideas?
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
15 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Showing posts with label Pablo Picasso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pablo Picasso. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Faith Of Nachshon
Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.
Pablo Picasso
******************
No matter what we do there is some degree of inspiration necessary and connected to it. But sometimes gaining that inspiration is a major test of faith.
According to the Zohar, a centuries old document of Jewish lore and Biblical interpretation, The Red Sea did not part until a man named Nachshon walked into it. Though nothing happened at first he didn't turn back but walked on with absolute certainty. When he reached the danger point and the water was up to his neck, the sea parted for the Israelites.
The point of this story is clear. We have to make the effort if we want to achieve the result and we have to have the certainty that there is inspiration to be had from our efforts. Simply put it's the old saying "God helps those who help themselves."
Considering the circumstances Nachshom obviously saw that crossing The Red Sea was their only alternative, so he set to it. Whether we are writing a novel, painting a picture, designing a building, raising a barn, financing a project or solving a scientific problem there are solutions that we haven't found yet and maybe don't even know are there.
I have noticed this to be true so many times in my life that I have come to have the faith of a Nochshon about many things. I stare at the problems confronting me and I despair and give up, for a moment. But then I pick up a pen or a brush, or I sit down at the keyboard and set to it. It is almost miraculous sometimes what happens, a parting of the waters. Where did that inspiration come from? Where did those answers emerge from? How did that happen?
I don't know. I just keep walking to the other side of it. All I know is that it found me working.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
20 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
Pablo Picasso
******************
No matter what we do there is some degree of inspiration necessary and connected to it. But sometimes gaining that inspiration is a major test of faith.
According to the Zohar, a centuries old document of Jewish lore and Biblical interpretation, The Red Sea did not part until a man named Nachshon walked into it. Though nothing happened at first he didn't turn back but walked on with absolute certainty. When he reached the danger point and the water was up to his neck, the sea parted for the Israelites.
The point of this story is clear. We have to make the effort if we want to achieve the result and we have to have the certainty that there is inspiration to be had from our efforts. Simply put it's the old saying "God helps those who help themselves."
Considering the circumstances Nachshom obviously saw that crossing The Red Sea was their only alternative, so he set to it. Whether we are writing a novel, painting a picture, designing a building, raising a barn, financing a project or solving a scientific problem there are solutions that we haven't found yet and maybe don't even know are there.
I have noticed this to be true so many times in my life that I have come to have the faith of a Nochshon about many things. I stare at the problems confronting me and I despair and give up, for a moment. But then I pick up a pen or a brush, or I sit down at the keyboard and set to it. It is almost miraculous sometimes what happens, a parting of the waters. Where did that inspiration come from? Where did those answers emerge from? How did that happen?
I don't know. I just keep walking to the other side of it. All I know is that it found me working.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have all Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
20 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Precious Plenty 3/25/09
Life always spills over the rim of every cup.
Boris Pasternak
***************
Hail.
-------------------
It was a very unpleasant trip to the post office today. For one thing it was cold, and it was depressing mail that I had to send, the state of my hip made it extremely painful to walk more than a hundred feet or so and the post office is a long distance from my home. This town has almost no pedestrian benches and none en route. So by the time I got back here I was exhausted, in pain and in a very bad mood. I wanted to have a bite to eat and take a nap.
But I saw what appeared to be a white spot on the floor. I thought I had spilled some milk or flour or something. The last thing I wanted to do was to clean up a dirty spot . But I got a sponge and some water and sat down to clean it. Then I discovered that it wasn't a spot of dirt but a spot of sunlight. I sat looking at it and admired this one patch of sunlight smiling up at me. I thought how amazing it was that the sun will find it's way through all the nooks and crannies of the world to shine it's light, how every available spot on earth gets its share of sunlight, some more, some less, even if it's only for one day and a few minutes.
Then I thought about how it's the same with ideas. Wherever they may come from, we all get our share of ideas, some more, some less. The problem is that we so often ignore them, we don't take note of them, we don't take the trouble to think about them, to observe them.
In Anton Chekhov's play "The Seagull" the character of Trigorin, a writer, tells how he always carries a piece of paper in his pocket in order to jot down descriptions and ideas. Picasso used to make drawings on paper restaurant napkins and hotel stationary. I once saw a TV interview with Harold Arlen, the composer of the songs in "The Wizard Of Oz" who took a piece of music paper out of his jacket pocket to show that he always carried it with him in case he got the idea for a melody.
Then I remembered that I do the same thing myself. I always have a small note pad in my pocket to write down ideas I get from reading or thinking. I have a box full of those note pads. Some of the entries are excellent, some good, some not so good, some dreadful. Some of the good ones (I hope) make it onto my journal, Vagabond Jottings.
All these memories and realizations came to me because instead of lazily falling into bed for a well needed nap I decided first to clean up a spot.on the floor. Later, when I woke from my nap, the sun had moved on and the spot was gone. But the journey had been successful.
There's a hymn that reads:
The useful and the great,
The thing that never dies,
The silent toil that is not lost, -
Set these before thine eyes.
DB The Vagabond
________________________
I don't care what the "meteorologist" says, It's spring.
*********************************************
Boris Pasternak
***************
Hail.
-------------------
It was a very unpleasant trip to the post office today. For one thing it was cold, and it was depressing mail that I had to send, the state of my hip made it extremely painful to walk more than a hundred feet or so and the post office is a long distance from my home. This town has almost no pedestrian benches and none en route. So by the time I got back here I was exhausted, in pain and in a very bad mood. I wanted to have a bite to eat and take a nap.
But I saw what appeared to be a white spot on the floor. I thought I had spilled some milk or flour or something. The last thing I wanted to do was to clean up a dirty spot . But I got a sponge and some water and sat down to clean it. Then I discovered that it wasn't a spot of dirt but a spot of sunlight. I sat looking at it and admired this one patch of sunlight smiling up at me. I thought how amazing it was that the sun will find it's way through all the nooks and crannies of the world to shine it's light, how every available spot on earth gets its share of sunlight, some more, some less, even if it's only for one day and a few minutes.
Then I thought about how it's the same with ideas. Wherever they may come from, we all get our share of ideas, some more, some less. The problem is that we so often ignore them, we don't take note of them, we don't take the trouble to think about them, to observe them.
In Anton Chekhov's play "The Seagull" the character of Trigorin, a writer, tells how he always carries a piece of paper in his pocket in order to jot down descriptions and ideas. Picasso used to make drawings on paper restaurant napkins and hotel stationary. I once saw a TV interview with Harold Arlen, the composer of the songs in "The Wizard Of Oz" who took a piece of music paper out of his jacket pocket to show that he always carried it with him in case he got the idea for a melody.
Then I remembered that I do the same thing myself. I always have a small note pad in my pocket to write down ideas I get from reading or thinking. I have a box full of those note pads. Some of the entries are excellent, some good, some not so good, some dreadful. Some of the good ones (I hope) make it onto my journal, Vagabond Jottings.
All these memories and realizations came to me because instead of lazily falling into bed for a well needed nap I decided first to clean up a spot.on the floor. Later, when I woke from my nap, the sun had moved on and the spot was gone. But the journey had been successful.
There's a hymn that reads:
The useful and the great,
The thing that never dies,
The silent toil that is not lost, -
Set these before thine eyes.
DB The Vagabond
________________________
I don't care what the "meteorologist" says, It's spring.
*********************************************
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Hiding Harvest 3/17/09
No one wants to know how clever you are. They don't want an insight into your mind, thrilling as it may be. They want an insight into their own.
Mark Haddon
*********************
Top o' the mornin' to you.
_______________________
Aeschylus, if you don't know him, was an ancient Greek playwright. He wrote great tragedies filled with poetry and drama. The world is blessed that some of his plays survive. Many years ago there was a cartoon in The New Yorker of two men in togas at an ancient theatre, standing and talking during intermission. And one says to the other "Oh, Aeschylus is all right, I suppose, but I go to the theatre to relax."
There are many reasons why people go to the theatre or to a concert or an art museum or read a novel. Relaxation may be one of them, but the really great works of art will make you think, maybe not at the moment, but eventually. A true artist knows he has to leave something for the audience member, the viewer, the listener, the reader, to do. When I first started painting I thought I had to completely fill up the canvas with details, until I saw some of the more interesting works by artists like Picasso and Braque. As a viewer I was being asked, no told, to supply information that seemed to be missing. In bookkeeping and other such precision tasks one has to dot every I and cross every T, but not in art.
A good story will leave it up to you to decide certain things from your own knowledge and imagination, if you've been following the story. There is more to the music than the musician plays.
In theatre there is something called "mysteries," but not mysteries in the detective story sense. The playwright doesn't tell the actor everything about the character. It is up to the actor, from his imagination and knowledge of acting and of the play, to fill in details. And at the same time we, as actors, don't give you all the details. We withhold some thoughts, feelings and expressions. We give you 75 to 90%, depending on the play, and let you construct the rest. Next time you see a film or TV drama notice if you are wondering what some character is thinking or feeling. If it's a good performance, with a good script you may not be told. Watch Marlon Brando in almost any film but particularly Mutiny On The Bounty. Every time I watch the film I'm fascinated by what his character is thinking and how he arrives at the decisions he makes.
Look at some delicate Japanese art. There may be a tree and a bridge with a mountain in the background. How you get from the bridge to the mountain is up to you.
Shakespeare, the great and unfathomable, sometimes invites you in to build the drama for yourself. In Henry the Fifth one character says to the audience "Think when we talk of horses that you see them printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth." He tells us to participate in the performance. There will be no horses on the stage, so we had better supply them.
Good artists will not hit every note, write every word nor paint every blade of grass. So you may go to the theatre to relax but if it's any good you'll go home thinking.
DB - Vagabond
-------------------------
Oi'll toon me fiddle and oi'll rosin me bow
And oi'll have music wheriver oi go.
Mark Haddon
*********************
Top o' the mornin' to you.
_______________________
Aeschylus, if you don't know him, was an ancient Greek playwright. He wrote great tragedies filled with poetry and drama. The world is blessed that some of his plays survive. Many years ago there was a cartoon in The New Yorker of two men in togas at an ancient theatre, standing and talking during intermission. And one says to the other "Oh, Aeschylus is all right, I suppose, but I go to the theatre to relax."
There are many reasons why people go to the theatre or to a concert or an art museum or read a novel. Relaxation may be one of them, but the really great works of art will make you think, maybe not at the moment, but eventually. A true artist knows he has to leave something for the audience member, the viewer, the listener, the reader, to do. When I first started painting I thought I had to completely fill up the canvas with details, until I saw some of the more interesting works by artists like Picasso and Braque. As a viewer I was being asked, no told, to supply information that seemed to be missing. In bookkeeping and other such precision tasks one has to dot every I and cross every T, but not in art.
A good story will leave it up to you to decide certain things from your own knowledge and imagination, if you've been following the story. There is more to the music than the musician plays.
In theatre there is something called "mysteries," but not mysteries in the detective story sense. The playwright doesn't tell the actor everything about the character. It is up to the actor, from his imagination and knowledge of acting and of the play, to fill in details. And at the same time we, as actors, don't give you all the details. We withhold some thoughts, feelings and expressions. We give you 75 to 90%, depending on the play, and let you construct the rest. Next time you see a film or TV drama notice if you are wondering what some character is thinking or feeling. If it's a good performance, with a good script you may not be told. Watch Marlon Brando in almost any film but particularly Mutiny On The Bounty. Every time I watch the film I'm fascinated by what his character is thinking and how he arrives at the decisions he makes.
Look at some delicate Japanese art. There may be a tree and a bridge with a mountain in the background. How you get from the bridge to the mountain is up to you.
Shakespeare, the great and unfathomable, sometimes invites you in to build the drama for yourself. In Henry the Fifth one character says to the audience "Think when we talk of horses that you see them printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth." He tells us to participate in the performance. There will be no horses on the stage, so we had better supply them.
Good artists will not hit every note, write every word nor paint every blade of grass. So you may go to the theatre to relax but if it's any good you'll go home thinking.
DB - Vagabond
-------------------------
Oi'll toon me fiddle and oi'll rosin me bow
And oi'll have music wheriver oi go.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Garnered Genius 3/16/09
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
Paul Gaugin
******************************
Here again are you? Good.
----------------------------------------
I was a member of the Art Students League of New York City. When I first started life drawing, I was terrible at it. Some of my drawings were embarrassingly bad. There was a woman in the class whose drawings were excellent. Not only did she have a near flawless rendering of the figure but she also managed to capture a sense of life in each piece she did. I would get to the class early, wait until she chose a seat and then sit next to her. I copied. I plagiarized. Out of the corner of my eye I watched to see how she started a drawing and how she continued it, to try to learn from her how to approach the whole problem of drawing the human figure. Thanks to her and my persistence at learning how, I eventually got very good at it, in my own style and manner. Then I noticed that some of the younger students were always sitting next to me and watching me. Okay. It was pay back time.
Artists have always used other artists ideas, all through the centuries. If you listen to 17th Century music you will hear a lot of composers trying to sound like Bach. In the 18th Century there were Mozart copiers. And so on. Today, how many rock bands play in the style of some other band?
But every now and then someone breaks through the tradition. Arnold Schoenberg was well trained in the tradition of Late Romantic German music but one day he decided that all twelve tones were of equal importance. He set aside the tradition of harmonic and intervalic progression and made what became known as twelve tone music, The dancer Isadore Duncan came out on stage, threw herself on the floor and gradually rose up. Something happened then that finally got called Modern Dance. Pablo Picasso drew a portrait one day that showed the face looking front and sideways at the same time. Jackson Pollock took his brush and dripped paint on his canvas. Andy Warhol painted a picture of a soup can. Samuel Beckett wrote a plotless play and some poet, I don't know who, let go of strict meter and let the words dance around themselves.
Each time those things happened there was a massive, silent crack in the sky which almost no one noticed. The world would never be the same. Revolutions had taken place. Right at this moment, somewhere in the world, it is about to happen again.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
--------------------------
Get your taxes done. Then celebrate.
Paul Gaugin
******************************
Here again are you? Good.
----------------------------------------
I was a member of the Art Students League of New York City. When I first started life drawing, I was terrible at it. Some of my drawings were embarrassingly bad. There was a woman in the class whose drawings were excellent. Not only did she have a near flawless rendering of the figure but she also managed to capture a sense of life in each piece she did. I would get to the class early, wait until she chose a seat and then sit next to her. I copied. I plagiarized. Out of the corner of my eye I watched to see how she started a drawing and how she continued it, to try to learn from her how to approach the whole problem of drawing the human figure. Thanks to her and my persistence at learning how, I eventually got very good at it, in my own style and manner. Then I noticed that some of the younger students were always sitting next to me and watching me. Okay. It was pay back time.
Artists have always used other artists ideas, all through the centuries. If you listen to 17th Century music you will hear a lot of composers trying to sound like Bach. In the 18th Century there were Mozart copiers. And so on. Today, how many rock bands play in the style of some other band?
But every now and then someone breaks through the tradition. Arnold Schoenberg was well trained in the tradition of Late Romantic German music but one day he decided that all twelve tones were of equal importance. He set aside the tradition of harmonic and intervalic progression and made what became known as twelve tone music, The dancer Isadore Duncan came out on stage, threw herself on the floor and gradually rose up. Something happened then that finally got called Modern Dance. Pablo Picasso drew a portrait one day that showed the face looking front and sideways at the same time. Jackson Pollock took his brush and dripped paint on his canvas. Andy Warhol painted a picture of a soup can. Samuel Beckett wrote a plotless play and some poet, I don't know who, let go of strict meter and let the words dance around themselves.
Each time those things happened there was a massive, silent crack in the sky which almost no one noticed. The world would never be the same. Revolutions had taken place. Right at this moment, somewhere in the world, it is about to happen again.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
--------------------------
Get your taxes done. Then celebrate.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Precise Procedure 12/26/08
I'm always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Pablo Picasso
***************************
I once knew a very religious fellow who, with almost no experience, got a job as a home construction worker. I saw him one day and asked him how it was going. He replied "Well, today the Lord taught me how to install a ceiling."
Several times in my life I have taken on the challenge of doing things I knew almost nothing about. In my late teens I was hired as an actor. I had talent and some ability but very little experience. I went to work carefully observing the other, more experienced actors around me. I bought books on the subject to give me an idea of the scope and dimensions of what I should be doing. I did a lot of homework with the script and the director's notes. I was slowly learning the craft. I did well enough to be hired again and again, and so spent most of my life as an actor. I got good enough so that a New York City critic wrote "His versatility is awe inspiring."
When I first got a job as a radio announcer, I didn't even know how to turn the microphone on. I sat down in front of a control board with a row of knobs and switches and a few meters. I tried turning them on and off while saying "Hello." Finally one of the meters flapped so I knew I was on the air. I introduced the first record, turned all the other knobs up, started the record and turned all the knobs down, one by one, until I found the one that made the meter move. From there I figured out where the next turntable was attached. By the end of my shift I knew 100% more about broadcasting than I did when I started, which was nothing. I learned even more by watching the other announcers and engineers work. Broadcasting was a part time job for me when I wasn't acting, but I was eventually welcomed as a part timer for a major market radio station in New York.
I took life drawing classes at an art school in New York. On my first day the model was a big man, over 6 feet tall and very husky. It was a 10 minute pose and what I drew was about 4 inches tall in the middle of the page. I used to keep it around just to show myself what I didn't know. I became annoyed with myself because I couldn't do it. I was at the point when most people would give up. But I signed up for classes all day, everyday, 6 days a week. When I wasn't working I was at the art school drawing. Until one day I finally saw what the instructors had been trying to show me about the human figure. Soon, the school was putting my drawings up for exhibit along with the more advanced students. And people in the class were moving over to sit next to be to see what I was doing so that they could learn from me.
I'm retired now, but in all of those areas, acting, broadcasting and drawing I can still do better. I'm no Picasso. But almost everything I've done in my life I did Picasso's way. You have to go into the water if you want to learn how to swim.
Macbeth said "And if we fail?"
His wife answered "We fail. But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail."
Shakespeare
DB - Vagabond Journeys
http://db-vagabondtales.blogspot.com/
Pablo Picasso
***************************
I once knew a very religious fellow who, with almost no experience, got a job as a home construction worker. I saw him one day and asked him how it was going. He replied "Well, today the Lord taught me how to install a ceiling."
Several times in my life I have taken on the challenge of doing things I knew almost nothing about. In my late teens I was hired as an actor. I had talent and some ability but very little experience. I went to work carefully observing the other, more experienced actors around me. I bought books on the subject to give me an idea of the scope and dimensions of what I should be doing. I did a lot of homework with the script and the director's notes. I was slowly learning the craft. I did well enough to be hired again and again, and so spent most of my life as an actor. I got good enough so that a New York City critic wrote "His versatility is awe inspiring."
When I first got a job as a radio announcer, I didn't even know how to turn the microphone on. I sat down in front of a control board with a row of knobs and switches and a few meters. I tried turning them on and off while saying "Hello." Finally one of the meters flapped so I knew I was on the air. I introduced the first record, turned all the other knobs up, started the record and turned all the knobs down, one by one, until I found the one that made the meter move. From there I figured out where the next turntable was attached. By the end of my shift I knew 100% more about broadcasting than I did when I started, which was nothing. I learned even more by watching the other announcers and engineers work. Broadcasting was a part time job for me when I wasn't acting, but I was eventually welcomed as a part timer for a major market radio station in New York.
I took life drawing classes at an art school in New York. On my first day the model was a big man, over 6 feet tall and very husky. It was a 10 minute pose and what I drew was about 4 inches tall in the middle of the page. I used to keep it around just to show myself what I didn't know. I became annoyed with myself because I couldn't do it. I was at the point when most people would give up. But I signed up for classes all day, everyday, 6 days a week. When I wasn't working I was at the art school drawing. Until one day I finally saw what the instructors had been trying to show me about the human figure. Soon, the school was putting my drawings up for exhibit along with the more advanced students. And people in the class were moving over to sit next to be to see what I was doing so that they could learn from me.
I'm retired now, but in all of those areas, acting, broadcasting and drawing I can still do better. I'm no Picasso. But almost everything I've done in my life I did Picasso's way. You have to go into the water if you want to learn how to swim.
Macbeth said "And if we fail?"
His wife answered "We fail. But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail."
Shakespeare
DB - Vagabond Journeys
http://db-vagabondtales.blogspot.com/
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